Lego Therapy

Lego-based therapy is a social skills programme tailored for children with social and communication challenges.

With the use of exciting Lego play, children will be able to learn skills such as turn taking during play, engaging with other children, joint attention skills and problem-solving skills.

Benefits of Lego therapy

The primary focus of Lego therapy is the development of social and communication skills among children. Engaging in collaborative play provides the child with the opportunity to practice verbal and nonverbal communication skills.

Apart from social communication skills, children will also learn a wide range of skills crucial to their development, such as motor and cognitive skills. While building various Lego models, children are picking up the Lego pieces with their fingers, moving the pieces around and placing them on the appropriate bases. Additionally, children need to match and sort the correct pieces according to size, shape and colour, follow instructions, practice counting and develop their language skills.

What happens during Lego therapy?

Children will be assigned specific roles and it will be rotated during each session. The roles include:  

Engineer – Instructs the supplier on what pieces are needed for the model and provides the builder with instructions on how to build the model. The engineer holds the map to the project guide.

Supplier – Identifies, asks, and retrieves the correct Lego pieces based on the engineer’s instruction. The supplier hands over the pieces to the builder.

Builder – Builds the model with guidance from instructions given by the engineer and with the relevant Lego pieces from the supplier.

Each role teaches various essential skills such as asking, requesting, listening, following of instructions, and waiting for their turn to execute their roles. Together as a team, children will build a model based on the theme for the day. It involves a mixture of structured play, where children build the allocated theme project, and free play, where children create models of their choice while retaining their roles.

An Allied Health Professional will facilitate each session to encourage children to take the lead in their roles and work in tandem to solve any issues that may arise. When necessary, the facilitator will provide prompts and promote positive interactions within the team.